


me and the sky

by Singofsolace



Category: Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (TV 2018)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Non-Magical, F/F, Pilot!AU, Sexual Harassment
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-15
Updated: 2020-03-15
Packaged: 2021-03-01 03:41:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,239
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23148658
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Singofsolace/pseuds/Singofsolace
Summary: Marie Lafleur has been a pilot all of her life. She's dealt with a lot of difficult situations, but she's never had an ex-lover come back into her life at the beginning of a flight, only to cause an emergency landing half-way through.Written in response to the Week Two prompt of Mambo Marie March: First Time
Relationships: Marie LaFleur (Chilling Adventures of Sabrina)/Zelda Spellman, Marie LaFleur/Zelda Spellman
Comments: 14
Kudos: 34
Collections: Mambo Marie March





	me and the sky

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this because I've wanted to do a Pilot!AU ever since I discovered Skye Marshall was in the Airforce. I also had the image of Miranda Otto in a flight attendant's outfit... and then the story got away from me after that. The title, "Me and the Sky," is borrowed from the Broadway musical, Come From Away. Please let me know what you think. 
> 
> (Also, the story will get much more relationship-oriented in the next chapter, so be sure to subscribe!)
> 
> Content Warning: in this fic there are themes of sexual assault, harassment, and domestic violence (in the past).

There was nothing particularly special about flying from New York to Rome. Marie Lafleur had flown the course countless times before; so long as the impending storm on their radar held off until they could make it up to 35,000 feet, it should be a relatively smooth flight. But as Marie completed her pre-flight checklist, she was stopped in her tracks when she heard a voice that seemed to come right out of her dreams.

“Zelda Spellman, here to report to the captain,” a sultry voice said from behind her.

Marie turned, her eyes widening upon confirming the identity of the woman who had been lost to her for so many years. _“Ma ch_ _érie?”_

Marie launched herself towards Zelda, opening her arms for a crushing embrace. Zelda’s body stiffened at first from her touch, but eventually the tension melted away. Zelda couldn’t remember the last time she was held like… like she _mattered._

“You have been missing from me for too long, _mon amour,_ too long!” Marie murmured, her lips brushing against Zelda’s ear.

“I’m sorry,” said Zelda when Marie eventually released her from the hug. “This is the first time I’ve been scheduled to fly this route since—since…”

Marie watched as a shadow of darkness fell over the woman’s face.

“Since your brother’s crash?” she offered, reaching out to stroke Zelda’s cheek with her finger.

“Yes,” Zelda nodded, leaning in to Marie’s touch. “So much has happened, Marie. You wouldn’t believe the years I’ve had.”

“They have not been kind to you?” asked Marie, concerned as she took the opportunity to look Zelda over. Certainly, she had aged in the sixteen years since they had last flown together, but then, so had Marie. The woman’s uniform was a bit looser on her body than Marie remembered—Zelda had always preferred tight-fitting clothes that showed off her figure. Her face, too, was thinner than Marie had ever known it to be, and her eyes were not filled with the same glow of warmth and mischief that had drawn them to one another.

“When my brother and his wife…” Zelda seemed unable to say the word “died.” Frustrated by her show of sentimentality, Zelda continued in a much stronger voice, “when their plane went down—my sister and I found ourselves with an infant to raise as our own. I couldn’t very well be flying all over the world when I had a baby to care for.”

“What made you return?” said Marie, squeezing Zelda’s hand to show her some form of support. “The sky has missed you desperately. _I_ have missed you.”

Zelda gave her a weak smile. “My niece, Sabrina, just went off to boarding school. And I…”

She lifted her left hand slowly, as if afraid of how Marie might react to the rings on her finger.

“You are married?! _Felicitations_!” said Marie, moving in once more to give Zelda a kiss on each cheek, but her congratulations sounded false even to her own ears. There was once a time when she thought that they might have had a future together… but clearly, she had been wrong to hope for such a future.

Zelda’s face had gone curiously blank. “Thank you.”

Marie felt a chill run down her spine at the lack of emotion in her former lover’s voice. Something wasn’t right, but their departure time was less than an hour away, and she really needed to brief the rest of the crew on the weather situation.

“Well, best get to it, then?” Marie said, offering a half-hearted smile.

“Of course,” Zelda nodded, turning to exit the cockpit before pausing at the door. “I’ve missed you too, Marie.”

Affection and a flickering of hope flooded Marie’s body, but before she could respond, Zelda had disappeared.

* * *

Zelda Spellman hadn’t been on an airplane—not even as a passenger—for over sixteen years. She thought returning to her job would be like riding a bicycle, but as she performed the safety demonstration, her heart began to pound. It wasn’t just the fear of crashing in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean that had her on edge; it was seeing Marie again, after all these years, that was flooding her body with adrenaline.

Strapping herself into her seat for take off was a purely mechanical gesture. She knew Marie was the best pilot of her generation, but Zelda was well aware that the most dangerous part of any flight was taking off and landing. And if something _did_ go wrong, there were only so many miracles on the Hudson. As it was, her brother and sister-in-law had never stood a chance of surviving—though occasionally, Zelda wondered what would’ve happened if Marie had been the one piloting the plane that fateful night instead.

Tearing her mind away from such thoughts, Zelda took a deep breath as they reached cruising altitude. Serving refreshments was her least favorite part of being a flight attendant, as the passengers were often rude and demanding, but it would certainly help to keep her mind occupied.

That is, it helped, until a huge and unexpected bout of turbulence sent her flying into a passenger’s lap. It was an elderly gentleman, dressed in what looked like a priest’s vestments, but there was certainly nothing priestly about the way he clung to her hips, keeping her firmly in place. She could feel his arousal pressing against her. A wave of nausea unlike any other crashed over her. She had gone back to work mostly to put distance between herself and her husband’s increasingly aggressive romantic overtures—was the universe really so cruel as to force her quite literally into the lap of another such man?

The plane jolted once more, and the dirty old man used this as an opportunity to grope her chest, under the pretense of keeping her from flying forward and hitting the seat in front of them. When the plane leveled out again, Zelda attempted to pry the old man’s fingers off of her, but he had a surprisingly strong grip.

“Please, let go of me, sir.”

“You shouldn’t be out of your seat, my child,” he said as the plane jolted again. “Wouldn’t want you… hurting yourself.”

The old man had his nose in her hair, nuzzling against her neck. Something broke inside of Zelda, then. Her vision blurred. She had spent most of her time as a young flight attendant dodging wandering hands; in her youth, she’d grown used to being treated as an object. But for sixteen years, she had lived a different life, away from serving the public. She’d thought that things would be better, now that the world was wising up to sexual harassment, but apparently, some things never changed.

The more Zelda wiggled to try and get away, the more it seemed to… _excite_ the man. Zelda could see her husband, Faustus, in her mind’s eye, telling her that this was all she’d ever be good for. Her body had always been public property. Her body was not her own. Anger rose inside her, until finally, she jammed her hand down between the man’s legs and grabbed him by his family jewels.

“Let me go, _Father_ ,” Zelda growled, giving them a little twist.

He immediately released her, grunting in pain.

“How dare you?” hissed the handsy priest. “How _dare_ you?”

Zelda tried to ignore him, scrambling off of his lap and returning to her cart, but he immediately unbuckled his seat belt—despite the smaller jolts that continued to plague the plane—and began shouting.

“That woman assaulted me,” the man declared, pointing at her accusingly. “I want her arrested.”

“ _What?”_ said Zelda, as she rolled her cart backwards, so that she could return it to its holding place until the turbulence was over.

“I want that woman _arrested_ ,” he shouted once more, drawing the attention of every man, woman, and child on the plane.

One of the other flight attendants, Lilith, was quickly making her way up the aisle, though her progress was slowed by the plane continuing to fight against the billowing storm clouds.

“What’s going on?” asked Lilith, looking between Zelda and the priest. “Why are you shouting, sir?”

“That woman,” said the man, “is a criminal.”

By then, Zelda had successfully returned the beverage cart to its home, and made her way back into the fray. “I am no such thing. If anything, he— _he_ —”

“I am God’s messenger and representative on Earth,” the man said, shouting over Zelda. “I will not stand for this sinful woman preying on an innocent man.”

“ _Innocent_?!” said Zelda, baffled at the turn this situation had taken. “You might be wearing a habit, but you’re just a dirty old man, like any other.”

“Lies! Blasphemy!” he said, and by this time, some of the other passengers were getting out of their seats. One such man flashed a badge in Zelda’s direction.

“Lucifer Morningstar, FBI,” said the man, invading Zelda’s space with a smirk on his face. “Any sex crime committed on a flight is under the jurisdiction of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.”

Lilith was attempting to reason with the man. “Sir—I saw Zelda fall. The only thing to blame here is turbulence.”

“Turbulence didn’t grab me—a man of God, sworn to abstinence—by the genitals!” said Methuselah.

Zelda felt dizzy. Surely, this wasn’t happening, on her very first flight in over a decade? She took a step back from Lucifer in order to have more space to breathe, but the man just closed the distance between them once more. “The turbulence made me fall—like Lilith said—and he was… he was touching me. I was only defending myself.”

“I saw it all happen,” insisted Lilith as she narrowed her eyes at the elderly man. “He’s a liar.”

“What’s your name, sir?” asked Lucifer, though his eyes were focused on Zelda in a way that made her skin crawl.

“Cardinal Methuselah. I’ve been summoned to Rome to elect a new Pope. Surely you believe my word over this harlot’s?”

“ _What_ did you just call her?” said Lilith, advancing on the man, but Detective Morningstar held out his hand to stop her.

“This is a serious allegation, Cardinal. Are you sure you want to go forward with it?”

Zelda could only watch in horror as Methuselah nodded his head, pointing to Zelda’s left hand, which bore both her wedding band and her engagement ring. “A harlot is a deep pit, and an adulterous woman is a narrow well. The unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God.”

Lucifer turned to Lilith. “Tell the pilot to land the plane at the nearest airport.”

 _“What?”_ said Zelda, eyes darting frantically between Methuselah, Lilith, and Detective Morningstar.

“Have local police meet us at the gate,” Lucifer continued, gesturing for Lilith to pass them so that she could inform the captain of the news. “Off you go.”

“We’re in the middle of the ocean,” said Lilith in disbelief. “By the time we make it to Europe, we might as well land in Rome, as scheduled.”

“By order of the FBI, this plane will land as soon as possible so that an investigation can be conducted and an arrest made,” said Lucifer, raising an eyebrow.

“But, officer—” started Zelda, before she was interrupted.

“Detective,” Lucifer corrected as Lilith hesitantly started towards the cockpit.

“Detective, don’t let this man fool you by hiding behind his god. What I did was purely in self-defense.”

“So, you admit that you touched this holy man’s genitals?” asked Lucifer, his smile a nasty thing.

Zelda’s mouth went dry. “I just wanted him to let me go.”

“That sounds like an admission of guilt to me.”

“Get this sinful woman out of my sight,” said Methuselah, returning to his seat. “I want her punished to the full extent of the law.”

“Come with me,” said Lucifer, grabbing Zelda by the arm.

“Don’t touch me!” shouted Zelda, prompting several onlookers to sit up straighter in their seats. Some even had their phones out, recording the whole thing. Zelda could feel panic rising in her at the bruising grip Lucifer used to haul her towards the front of the plane. Surely, she hadn’t gone to so much trouble to escape her husband, only to wind up manhandled by these strangers?

Lucifer forced her into her designated seat towards the nose of the plane, far too pleased with himself.

“I’ve never arrested a woman for sexual assault before.”

“You still haven’t,” hissed Zelda, trying to even out her breathing. She was very close to a panic attack. “That man was harassing _me_.”

“Are you saying men can’t be the victims of sexual assault?” said Lucifer, raising an eyebrow.

“You know what—I don’t have to say anything to you,” said Zelda, crossing her arms. “I want a lawyer.”

“You’re not under arrest yet,” said Lucifer, turning his nose up at her. “You’ll be Mirandized once we touch down in Spain.”

“Marie would never land the plane on the orders of some blowhard Fed who wouldn’t know justice if it bit him on the—”

Zelda’s words were cut off by a familiar French accent coming over the P.A. system.

“Attention all passengers. Due to a serious accusation of a crime being committed upon this aircraft, the F.B.I. has requested we put our wheels down as soon as we see land. Stand by for further information.”


End file.
